The term
"Shichiseki" appeared some years back
associated with a Japanese Website formerly hosted at
www.kikkou.com website started by a Mr.Sekine
and then sold to "Chiba Sensei". The site was not been active for a
couple of years, but is now run by Dr. D. Vice.

The term "Shichiseki" however has turned up at a
number of websites as meaning "Japanese Rope Bondage". It does not.

I study a little Japanese, and seaarched and searched
for the origin of the meaning of that word. All I could find was that the
word "schichi" means seven, and never could
find what the rest of the word meant.

Recently, I contacted Doctor D. Vice a German who is a 20+ year resident
of Japan, a photographer and new student of Japanese Rope Bondage. He had
recently been performing for Osada Sensei who passed away on September 12,2001.
"Doc" was kind enough to help me research and understand its meaning
and origin.

He had to do some digging himself, but explained to me that he believed that
the word "schickiseki" actually has nothing to do with Japanese Rope Bondage
at all, but it is made up of two "Chinese characters for Seven and Red,
but does not have any meaning in Japanese".

He went on to explanin that what he believed the word to mean is that it
refers to part of a Chinese octagon that was used at the kikkou.com website,
as a menu graphic. He went on to explain that this octagon used alot in China,
perhaps for some feng shui purpose, or "other pseudo-religious mumbo jumbo
used to fool gullible peasants and to suppress the masses".

(Graphic used by permission)

So according to Doc the word and graphic is "Chinese" and has nothing to
do with "kinbaku", Japanese Rope Bondage ARt.

Doc, thought perhaps it was simply a creation of the orginal website designer
who thought it would be original, but also "didn't foresee that this would
also fool all foreigners into making a connection with JAPANESE and/or
kinbaku".

UPDATE:

Not satisfied that with the conflict with the term seven and that the logo
was an eightsided octagan, I continued my own digging and discovered that
the word "Schickiseki" is actually a word that refers to the July 7th annual
"Festival of the Weaver". The word Shibari which meanas to tie or bind with
a rope or cord, comes from the word "Shibori" which refers to the art of
weaving cloth. This is more likely what the webdesigner had in mind when
he used the word.